And We're Back In Business Again......

Well, now that I'm finally back in this space, my dear neglected blog, where I can write whatever I want, I really don't know what to write.

It's been so long, too long.

I guess I could write about the trials and tribulations of the past months, the illness, anxiety and stress. But that's all in the past, I want to look forward and to focus on the positive.

Who wants to read about depressing stuff like that? Certainly not me!

So, focusing on the positive, what have we been up to these past few months, I hear you all ask?

Well, lets just have a little look, shall we?

Picnics in the back garden, making the most of the last of the warm Autumn days before Winter extends her cold fingers around our home and garden.

My two biggest boys took part in the ANZAC Day celebrations as part of their Army Cadet unit. I'm so proud of them.

Not least for braving a very chilly autumn morning in thin cotton shirts.

(Not really fair that I was nice and warm in a coat and woollen scarf, was it?)


Someone finally got a big boy bed!

At first he was so overwhelmed he burst into tears at the sight of it. Then once Daddy showed him how much fun jumping on the bed and pretending to sleep to trick Mama was, he loved it.

And even though he's been sleeping in the big boy bed for months now, he still doesn't get out of it when he wakes up. I guess it hasn't yet occurred to him.

Thank goodness.

Though the yelling of "Mummy I want to get up NOW!" gets a little tedious at 6am every morning.


We've made numerous masking tape racetracks for Roary and other assorted vehicles to race upon. Giving Mama a much needed 5 minutes quiet time to work/tidy/doze off. (It varies on any given day).


Another favourite game is stealing Daddy's boots to show us his impression of Jake the Peg by Rolf Harris. We then find discarded boots all over the house.

(Yes, my husband owns multiple pairs of Union Jack Doc Martins)

(Don't even ask!)


And lastly, there has been lots of this going on.

Shmushy face Charlie cuddles are simply the best.

That's it for now folks. Hope you enjoyed the picture heavy update.

I'm off for some more of those shmushy face cuddles.

We Spend Most of Our Day Doing This ........

...... just hanging by the pool.






Don't be too jealous.

Hehehe.......

The 'I'm too Busy to Write So Here Are Some Photos' series

Hmmm.... I see a theme developing here.

Lately it seems that whenever Charlie plays with his big brothers,

a lovely scene like this.....



soon turns into this ....



And again, from this...



...to this....



and finally to this .....



Poor Corey seems to be copping the brunt of little Charlie's over active affection.

I hope that it's just innocent enthusiasm.

Or we may have a problem......

Boys, boys, boys.

Corey's 13th birthday party is over.

And I'm sad.

Call me crazy but I loved having a house full of boys. And teenage boys at that.

I loved being surrounded by boys, they're just so much fun.

As a teenager myself, I read the books Little Men and Jo's Boy's by Louisa May Alcott, and dreamed of one day opening a school/orphanage for boys, just like the character in the story. Secretly I would still love to do this, though I think my husband would try to talk me out of it.

In the stories she had such adventures with her boys, loved them so much even when no one else did and received love in return. And that's how I feel when I'm surrounded by boys.

I have my own three boysof course, so am well on the way to achieving my secret dream, and when they bring home friends and the house is full - I love it.

Not most people's cup of tea I suppose, to be surrounded by loud, active and always hungry boys, but what I love most is the joy they bring. Boys tend to get a bad rap, you should hear the comments I get when I say I have three boys. Though contrary to popular belief I find them to be full of life, so open and filled with energy and happiness.

I have a great rapport with all of the boys who filled my house, they talk to me, and have said they tell me things they don't even tell their own mum. One of the reasons I'm doing a double degree in Counselling, specialising in Children and Parenting, is to be able to work with kids one day, helping them and their parents to achieve a wonderful life.

Give them love and attention, keep them engaged and active, and boys are just wonderful.

I'm blessed to have three boys of my own, as well as the joy of knowing their friends.

Boys make me smile.

The 'I'm too Busy to Write So Here Are Some Photos' series.

Army Cadets Formal Dinner - 20 November 2010

A Summertime Christmas

Last weekend, in the middle of a heatwave, we put up our Christmas Tree.

It was 38oC that day.

And our air conditioning was broken.

The pool was not fit to swim in either.

Needless to say we were hot.

Hence the nearly naked photos of Charlie.



Listening to Christmas songs such as "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" while putting up the tree in the heat, was the ultimate irony.



Why, hello there Santa, so nice of you to drop by.



Charlie was eager to get started with the decorating.

Surveying the tree.....







For some reason Charlie insisted in putting the decorations as far into the tree as he could reach.

It obviously makes sense in his mind to do so.





The finishing touch.... affixing the star atop the tree.... with a little help from Kaiden.







And the finished product...


It's definitely starting to feel like Christmas around here.

I can tell by that little bead of sweat, slowly trickling down my back.

The Belated Halloween Post

I know this post is a bit late.

Well ok, a LOT late. Every other blogger on earth has done their Halloween post ages ago, done and dusted. But not me...

And although you're all probably focused on Thanksgiving (for my US readers!) and Christmas by now, here's what happened on Halloween in our little part of the world.

Halloween in Australia is not big at all. It's becoming more popular but only because we are more and more influenced by American culture. Trick or treating is slowing gaining popularity, mainly as a means for kids to get extra rations of lollies for no particular reason.

Now being pagan, Halloween, or Samhain (pronounced Sow-en) does have meaning for us. It's a traditional Autumn agricultural, earth based celebration going back to the mists of time (ok maybe that bits a little exaggeration!).

My problem is this - IT'S NOT AUTUMN HERE!

Just because Halloween is celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere in their Autumn, people in the Southern Hemisphere who have no real idea of what they're celebrating follow along just because of the calendar date.

We should be celebrating Springtime.

But being the wonderful mother that I am, I don't want to deprive my kids of the fun of trick or treating for a bag of sugar and additive laden lollies. So we celebrate a modified version of Halloween on the evening of 31 October.

This year the big boys couldn't wait to introduce Charlie to the fun of trick or treating. Even though he was ill, I relented and let them take him out for a short time.


Kaiden as the boy from ET, Charlie as a Magician, and Corey as a skateboarding demon type creature.


At first Charlie wasn't quite sure about this whole dressing up thing.


"I'll sort of smile just to humour you, but I really don't get what this is all about."


"Lollies and treats you say?"



"Ok then, let me just adjust my cape. Let's roll!"

I think the older two boys benefited from having a cute little brother along with them, and their stash of good stuff was definitely bigger than last year.

And that's when Charlie realised he was onto a good thing.


Enjoying the spoils, and the subsequent sugar high.


Secretly, even though my older two are getting to be big boys now, I still think they love the fun of getting dressed up.




Not that us adults would ever enjoy anything like that......


Being a sexy witch... please don't laugh!

I had at one point intended to write about the origins of Halloween, and how here in the Southern Hemisphere it's Spring and we celebrate Beltane, but I'm a little over it all now.

But we did celebrate Beltane on 1 November. Halloween = death, followed by Beltane = life. This is how I justify celebrating Halloween out of season, the circle of life, death, life and so on.

Beltane is an old agricultural festival that celebrates the start of summer, the crop, pasturing season and fertility. It's a fun celebration of life.

This year we didn't do much for Beltane, I had wanted to make a mini Maypole for us to dance around and to have a little feast but circumstances conspired against my good intentions. I did decorate my besom (broom) though.



It's my witch's broom that I made recently from twigs gathered from the trees at the park across from our home. I plan to decorate it for each Sabbat (Holy days). I don't have much time to plan out big celebrations for each Sabbat, but I do what I can and in my heart I celebrate it in all it's glory.

Happy belated Beltane/Samhain to you all!

What a Bad Blogger Am I

I've been a very bad blogger this week. I've not had a minute to spare lately.

The following two words should explain everything :

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS.

To recap we have........

Played toys at home.


Played dress ups.


Had friends come for a sleep over. How much sleep was actually had, could be debated.


Had a (pretend) ride on Daddy's scooter.


Played toys some more.


Turned into a TV zombie.


Tried on Daddy's shoes for size.


Had to put up with the incessant noise of the vacuum cleaner whilst trying to watch favourite shows on the computer.


And attempted to make friends with the local wildlife.


A busy week in all.

Upon compiling these photos, I realise that I sadly lack captured moments of my two big boys.

Usually due to the fact they're rarely around.

I'll try to pin them both down soon. Convince them to come home and let me take photos of them.

Perhaps I can lure them in with food.

One of Those Days.....

Ever had one of those days where you wish you hadn't bothered?

Of course you have. Everyone has.

Well for us, last Sunday was one of those days.

It all started when I had to take Corey to soccer training. An annoying enough thing at 8.30am on a Sundday morning, when I should be sipping coffee in my pajamas.

Halfway to the location, as we approached the turn onto the freeway, uh oh..... accident ahead.

The turn onto the freeway was closed, and there was only one to go. And it was the wrong way.

Of course.

It was 20 minutes out of our way, and by this time, after thinking over my options to the background noise of Charlie working himself up into a tired tantrum, I had more than had enough already. And it was only 9am.

Making an executive decision, I gave Corey the day off training and we headed home to put Charlie down for his morning sleep.

After lunch I thought I'd surprise the two older boys with an excursion to the Go Kart track. To say they were excited would be an understatement.

After entering the address into the car GPS, off we went with two boys bursting with anticipation.

We easily found the road we needed, but halfway down it turned into a dirt track. Hmmm.... now what?

After checking the paper based road map that I keep for emergency use (thank goodness) we realised we were on the right road, but unfortunately at the wrong side of that dirt track. Do we turn around and take the long way or head on into the wilderness?

My memory is a little foggy, but err.... someone decided that we might as well try the dirt track as it didn't 'look too bad'.

You guessed it. Famous last words.

The track rapidly deteriorated, rocks littering the path, growing larger with every bend. Charlie took an instant dislike to the bumpiness and didn't hesitate to let us know. At the top of his voice.

Then the sand. Oh the sand.

The car was drifting all over the place with the chance of getting bogged a real possibility. Thank goodness for Del's past army driver training.

Time for another executive decision. TURN AROUND. NOW!

Eventually after taking the long route, we arrive at the Go Kart track. Kids bristling with excitement, they found helmets and waited for their session.

The start of the session went fine, but at the first corner it all went downhill fast. Literally. One of the go karts would not turn left, resulting in multiple crashes off the side of the track over the next 15 mins.

Damage to body = bumps and bruises.

Damage to teenage pride = immense.

We were implored to head home. Which we did. Immediately.

After much discussion we decided that given all that had happened perhaps we should of all just spent the day at home.

Next time we plan to go Ten Pin Bowling. Nothing can go wrong witht that, can it?

I'll keep you posted.

Black is the New Black

This is what happens to washing day when you have teenage boys.




It becomes a repetitive cycle of black, black and more black. Oh, for a little colour.


But wait...... there in the corner, what do I spy? A little bit of blue?




It's Kaiden's much cherished Top Gear shirt, hiding in a sea of dullness.

This shows how much he loves cars and the show Top Gear. He's willing to forgo black for a change, step beyond his fashion boundaries and wear a little blue.

Thank goodness Charlie is still young enough to not care what colour I dress him in.

Yet.